While the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal this morning gave front-page coverage to yesterday's grisly beheading of a British serviceman on a London street in broad daylight, the New York Times placed their 20-paragraph story by London correspondent John F. Burns on page A7. Editors slapped on the headline, "'Barbaric' Attack in London Renews Fears of Terror Threat," with "barbaric" in scare quotes. 

While the Post, Journal, and Times all ran quotes from one of the attackers as transcribed from a cell phone video filmed by a bystander, the NYTimes curiously left out a portion of the rant where the attacker boasted, "We swear by the almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone."

READ THE WHOLE THING!

TOMMY IS A WISE AND BRAVE MAN: "Britain is sleepwalking into islamic domination. ... Our troop's blood is on your hands!"

Jamie Glazov 

British PM says they will never surrender to terror and in the next breath tells British soldiers to stop wearing their uniforms outside the base......um okkkkkkkk.......they better start veiling the women next.

The different ideals and self-interested motives of the characters are frequently contrasted. Whilst Hacker occasionally approaches an issue from a sense of idealism and a desire to be seen to improve things, he ultimately sees his re-election and elevation to higher office as the only measures of his success. Accordingly, he must appear to the voters to be effective and responsive to the public will. To his party (and, in the first incarnation, the Prime Minister) he must act as a loyal and effective party member. 

Sir Humphrey, on the other hand, genuinely believes that it is the Civil Service that knows what is best for the country (a belief shared by his bureaucratic colleagues) which is usually what is best for the Civil Service. Most of Sir Humphrey's actions are motivated by his wish to maintain the prestige, power, and influence he enjoys.

The Jerusalem District Attorney filed an indictment against Ahmed Abu Alhlawh, an 18-year-old resident of Jerusalem, who attacked a young haredi man during Nakba Day events, held on May 15.

According to the indictment, on Nakba Day the defendant walked to the Damascus Gate with some friends. When the defendant and his friends noticed a group of young haredim, they punched and kicked them, because of their Jewish ethnicity. The haredi that was hospitalized was in fair condition at the time, and stayed in the hospital for five days.

The two suspects videotaped butchering a soldier to death on a London street before spouting extremist slogans to bystanders were part of a early security services investigations for possible terror links, according to a government British official. [...]

The Associated Press, quoting an unidentified British official, said both men had been part of an earlier security services probe.

Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday the brutal murder of a soldier by two suspected Islamists on a London street was an attack on Britain and a betrayal of Islam.

"This was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life. It was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country," he said.

"There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act."

The details of a shocking child abuse scandal began to emerge on Tuesday in the Galilee town of Majd al-Krum when a Nazareth court lifted the gag order on the affair, which apparently has been going on for ten years.

Munib Farhat, a 56-year-old resident of Majd al-Krum, is suspected of heading a cult and enforcing his will on six families in his community, including dozens of children. The police suspect Farhat of forcing the members of his cult to beat their children, humiliate them, withhold food, lock them in bathrooms and smear them with fecal matter. The cult leader is also suspected of abusing the women in the cult, committing sexual assault and sodomizing them.

The affair was exposed when a woman who belonged to the cult filed a police complaint several weeks ago. A team of investigators consequently launched an undercover probe into the woman's allegations, in cooperation with Welfare Ministry social workers and Interior Ministry officials. The investigation, which was accompanied by the Haifa District Prosecutor's Office, revealed that Farhat, who refers to himself as a caliph, allegedly imposed a very strict disciplinary code on 11 adults and 25 children.

...Farhat was also very involved in cult members' personal lives, and he required them to reveal intimate details of their relationships, and of their finances. He also demanded that members turn over their salaries to him, and he distributed allowances to members. Cult members questioned by police said that Farhat tried to foster total dependence on him, and demanded that they loyally follow his every instruction.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man who the FBI says spoke of killing U.S. Army soldiers as part of a personal jihad has pleaded guilty to possessing a stolen firearm.

Erwin Antonio Rios admitted guilt Tuesday in U.S. District Court as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.

In an affidavit filed with the court, FBI Special Agent Frank Brostrom said the 19-year-old from Fayetteville holds extremist Islamic views and told a government informant he would like to kill Fort Bragg soldiers.

Authorities said Rios also plotted to travel overseas to commit violence and devised a scheme to commit armed robberies to get money to buy weapons. The FBI set up a sting where Rios bought what he was told was a stolen handgun and was then immediately placed under arrest.

"And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful." -- 9:5

"Fight them; Allah will punish them by your hands and will disgrace them and give you victory over them and satisfy the breasts of a believing people and remove the fury in the believers' hearts. And Allah turns in forgiveness to whom He wills; and Allah is Knowing and Wise." -- 9:14-15

"Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled." -- 9:29

"O Prophet, fight against the disbelievers and the hypocrites and be harsh upon them. And their refuge is Hell, and wretched is the destination." -- 9:73

"O you who have believed, fight those adjacent to you of the disbelievers and let them find in you harshness. And know that Allah is with the righteous." -- 9:123

[CHINA], the world's second largest economy grew at its slowest pace in three years over January to March, said economists. The flash HSBC Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI) for May that was released on Thursday slipped to 49.6, falling under the key 50 level, which divides expansion from contraction, for the first since October. Last month, the final HSBC PMI stood at 50.4. The decline was driven partly by a fall in new orders - with the sub-index dropping to 49.5, the lowest reading since September. 

"It is not good and it does increase the chances of a sequential slowdown in the second quarter GDP [gross domestic product]. Simply put, domestic demand this time wasn't strong enough to counter fully the impact of still weak external demand," Donna Kwok, greater China economist at HSBC told CNBC on Thursday.

When Ben Bernanke testified before Congress Tuesday [FEBRUARY 2013, JUST A FEW MONTHS AGO] and Wednesday, he staunchly defended his easy- money policies like quantitative easing, or "QE Forever." 

"We do not see the potential costs of the increased risk-taking in some financial markets as outweighing the benefits of promoting a stronger economic recovery," the Federal Reserve chairman said. Bernanke added the central bank takes "very seriously" the excessive risk-taking its dovish policies could provoke and is watching markets carefully.
He maintained that the bank's accommodative monetary policy has "supported real growth in employment and kept inflation close to our target [2%]." 

But some Fed officials are growing concerned about quantitative easing - the Fed's purchases of $85 billion in securities a month - and believe it would be prudent to slow or stop the buying well before the end of 2013. 

A fourth night of unprecedented riots in Stockholm has seen unrest spread, with a restaurant and up to 40 cars burnt, police told the BBC. 

Three police officers were hurt as rioters threw stones and directed laser pointers at emergency services. The worst of the latest rioting was in the south of the city, not the north-west where it began on Sunday.

Suicide bombers have struck a military camp and a French-run uranium mine in two towns in north-west Niger. A bomb at a military barracks in Agadez killed at least 19 people, including 18 soldiers, Internal Affairs Minister Abdou Labo told the BBC. Four attackers also died there and a fifth is holding four army officers hostage, he said. The attack on the mine, in the town of Arlit, injured 50. The jihadist Mujao group said it had carried out the attacks.

1. three days of rioting in Sweden
2. a beheading on a city street in London
3. a civil war in Syria with war crimes against humanity
4. the Boston marathon bombing - by Chechens
5. the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan
6. women systematically attacked with acid 

... Stan Brand, who was the general counsel for the House of Representatives from 1976 to 1983 and works on ethics issues.

... “Bottom line,” Brand said, “I think we will hear no more from Ms. Lerner” unless she is provided immunity.

Two men wielding a machete and a cleaver hacked a man believed to be a soldier to death on a busy London street Wednesday while yelling "Allahu Akbar," in an attack that was caught on video and left the nation shocked and horrified.

The victim, who some reports said may have been a soldier, was killed at the scene, and the attackers waited at the scene until police arrived and shot both. One attacker, his hands soaked in blood and still holding a machete, delivered an angry jihadist screed as stunned passersby watched, the dead man lying on the street, in the southeast London neighborhood of Woolwich.

"We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day," he said in a video clip that was shown on the ITV website. "This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

"I apologize that women have had to witness this today, but in our land our women have to see the same," the killer continued. "You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don't care about you."

Witnesses said the attackers shouted "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is Great," during the bloody rampage, according to the BBC.

Police said two attackers were shot by authorities and taken to separate London hospitals to be treated for their injuries. Live television images of the scene showed a trail of blood on the pavement, cordoned-off streets and crime scene investigators marking the scene as witnesses recounted the harrowing attack.

"These two guys were crazed. They were just animals," one witness, identified as James, told LBC radio. "They dragged him from the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road and left his body there."